Tag Archives: NSX - Page 2

VMware has changed their NSX licensing model from a one-fits-all license model to 3 license tiers. Starting May 3, 2016 VMware NSX is available as three offerings: Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise. All three tiers are licensed based on physical sockets. The existing NSX license scheme is no longer availale.

Special license models are available for Service Providers and Virtual Desktop environments. For EUC platforms, the advanced edition is also available one a per-user basis and Service Providers can license NSX on a per-VM basis. At least NSX 6.2.2 is required to work with NSX Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise license keys.

According to VMware, these offerings are aligned to the following requirements:

Standard is targeted at organizations that needs agility and automation of the networks.

Advanced is for organizations requiring a more secure data center with micro-segmentation.

Enterprise is for organizations that needs networking and security across multiple domains.

Coming from the one-fits-all license model where everyone gets everything, the question is - which features are missing in Standard and Advanced?Read more »

VMware Log Insight provides an easy, at a glance, view of an entire VMware environment including NSX and other components. Additional available content packs provide predefined knowledge about events. Problems with a vSphere environment can be identified by simply looking at the Overview dashboard.This post describes how to integrate all NSX Components into VMware Log Insight.

When you login as a user from an external authentication source like Active Directory or LDAP, configuration of NSX is not possible. The Network & Security button is present, but no NSX Managers or other configuration objects are visible, despite the user has administrative permissions at the vCenter Object. Network & Security configuration is empty. The default vCenter Administrator can see everything.
VMware NSX has its own permissions structure, separated from vCenter Server Permissions.

Before you install or upgrade NSX 6.2, consider resource requirements. One NSX Manager per vCenter Server is mandatory. At least 3 NSX Controllers are recommended. You can install one instance of Guest Introspection and Data Security per ESXi host and multiple NSX Edge instances per datacenter.

I've created a NSX Hardware Requirement Calculator. Enter the number of NSX Controllers, ESXi Hosts and NSX Edges you are planning to deploy. The tool calculates the total required Memory, virtual CPUs and disk space.

VMware NSX is the SDDC technology of the future. What ESX was once for Servers, NSX is now for Networks. I highly encourage everyone to make yourselves familiar with this technology. NSX with all its features is quite complex, but the entry point is quite simple and requires only basic vSphere and networking skills. This beginners guide explains how to deploy NSX in your homelab even with limited physical ressources by downsizing NSX Manager and NSX Controller VMs. The guide starts at zero and quickly explains how to deploy NSX and connect your first Virtual Machine to a VXLAN based logical switch that is able to communicate to the physical world through an NSX Edge Gateway.